Episode #0 - Meeting EDJNet

Europe will be the world's first climate-neutral continent by 2050. This is the promise made by the European Union back in 2019, when the so-called European Green Deal was announced.But since this ambitious goal was mentioned for the first time, COVID happened, and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the energy crisis associated with it. So, how is the European Green Deal going so far?In this episode, we will present you the results of an investigation by the European Data Journalism Network that lasted three months and involved eight newsrooms.You’ll hear from Ajit Niranjan, climate and data journalist at the German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle and coordinator of this investigation, and Anita Ishaq, data journalist at Openpolis in Italy.You can read the main article of the investigation on EDJNet’s website: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/News/Data-news/How-is-the-EU-progressing-toward-the-energy-transition

The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the labour market: the so-called “platform economy” rapidly developed during the pandemic while lockdowns and travel restrictions changed the way we work. But, more than that, the pandemic changed the way we think about work.In this episode, we will present you the results of an investigation by the European Data Journalism Network that lasted three months and involved six European media outlets. You’ll hear from Catherine André, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Alternatives Economiques in France and coordinator of this investigation, Adrian Burtin, Journalist at Voxeurop based in Brussels and Michela Finizio, journalist at Il Sole 24 Ore in Italy.You will find all the materials related with this analysis on EDJNet's website, starting from March 27th: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/

In 30 of Europe's biggest cities, streets named after women make up only 9% of the streets dedicated to individuals. The imbalance has started to narrow in some places, but progress is too slow: at this rate, it would take centuries to really close the gap.This is one of the main results of Mapping Diversity, a large-scale analysis led by the European Data Journalism Network, which explored who are the people to which our streets are named after. The investigation lasted five months and involved nine European media outlets, analysing almost 150,000 European streets.You’ll hear from Lorenzo Ferrari, data journalist at OBC Transeuropa and coordinator of this investigation, Petra Dvořáková, journalist at the Czech media Deník Referendum, and Kelly Kiki, data journalist at the Incubator for Media Education and Development in Greece.You can explore the material related with this analysis on the dedicated website: https://mappingdiversity.eu/

6,593 women were intentionally killed in Europe between 2011 and 2021. 64% of them were killed by their partner, 36% by a relative, according to Eurostat.But when it comes to femicide, statistics in Europe are incomplete, missing or not up-to-date.The last comprehensive study done at the European level dates back to 2018.In this episode, we will present you the results of a cross-border data survey conducted for the first time in Europe involving 18 media outlets from the European Data Journalism Network.You’ll hear from Janine Louloudi, data journalist at MIIR and coordinator of this investigation, and Teodora Curcic, data journalist at the Serbian media CINS.You can find all the current and upcoming stories about this work on the network’s website: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/Investigations/Femicides-in-Europe

Between 2015 and 2021, the European Union financed an ambitious project with the goal to “address the root causes of migration”, as the former European Council President Donald Tusk said back then. To this end, the EU's Emergency Trust Fund for Africa was launched, which invested some 5 billion euros in 250 projects over six years.What were the results of the project? And where did that money go?In this episode, we present you the results of an investigation that involved four newsrooms and looked into the details of how the EU Trust Fund for Africa worked.You’ll hear from Gianna Grün, data journalist at Deutsche Welle and coordinator of this investigation, and Francesca Spinelli, freelance journalist working with VoxEurop, based in Brussels.You can find all the stories and data about this work on the network’s website: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/Investigations/EU-Trust-Fund-for-Africa

Around a hundred thousand people across the European Union are waiting in jail for a final sentence.This represents more than 20% of the overall European prison population.Preventive detention should be an exceptional and a temporary measure, yet its use has increased in recent years. And there is often a clear pattern to who gets locked up before trial.In this episode, we focus on the abuse of preventive detention, looking at the results of an investigation that lasted ten months involving eight newsrooms within the European Data Journalism Network.You’ll hear from Eva Belmonte and Ángela Bernardo, two journalists at the Spanish media Civio, which coordinated the investigation, and Beatriz Walviesse Dias, journalist at the Portuguese media Divergente.You can find all the stories and data about this work on the network’s website: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/Investigations/Abuse-of-preventive-detention

Plastic is one of the most enduring products made from fossil fuels. And our planet is filled with it. Plastic pollutes the oceans, the soil and even the air.In this context, big food and drinks companies such as Unilever, Ferrero, Coca-cola and Danone are among the main polluters. Year after year, they promise to reduce their plastics consumption. They announce ambitious goals and advertise them on their products. But do they keep the promises they make?In this episode, we will present you the results of an investigation that involved six newsrooms and analysed 98 plastics commitments made over the past twenty years by 24 large food and drink companies headquartered in Europe.You will hear from Kira Schacht, journalist at Deutsche Welle and coordinator of the investigation, and Bénédicte Weiss, journalist at the French magazine Alternatives Economiques.You can find all the stories and data about this work on the network’s website: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/Investigations/Broken-plastics-promises

Every year, hundreds of people in Europe have access to assisted reproductive technologies (ART). These are used to treat infertility problems in heterosexual couples or to enable same-sex couples or single women to have children. There are countries in Europe where babies born with these techniques are between 5 and 8 percent of the total.Each European country has its own rules to regulate access to those treatments, involving age limits and the number of attempts covered by the public healthcare system. In some cases, the rules in place lead to discrimination that hits mainly LGBT couples and single women. All this often forces people to travel abroad to avoid such limitations.EDJNet engaged in an investigation, led by Civio, which tackles one of the key aspects of the problem: access to treatments. The investigation looked into the legislation of 43 European countries, resulting in a comprehensive database and in a number of different stories that go beyond the data to hear the personal experiences of people.We talk about the investigation with Ángela Bernardo and Maria Álvarez del Vayo from Civio (Spain) and Adrian Burtin from Voxeurop (France).

“One thing we have learned – or should have learned – from the pandemic is that if we leave one group behind, we leave everyone behind”. The Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on people’s lives: suddenly we were overwhelmed by reports, maps and charts about infections, hospitalisations, vaccinations, etc. Yet little information has been made public about the spread of the coronavirus in carceral facilities.Data collected by 12 newsrooms in the European Data Journalism Network, coordinated by Deutsche Welle, shows that the effort to keep the infection under control in detention institutions came at a high cost. Prisoners found themselves more isolated than ever: visits and education activities were suspended, vaccination campaigns were delayed, while overcrowding put the most vulnerable at risk.In this episode, we dig into the making and findings of the investigation with data journalists Kira Schacht from Deutsche Welle, and Janine Louloudi from MIIR (Greece).You can find all the stories and data about this work on the network’s website: https://www.europeandatajournalism.eu/eng/Investigations/Locked-up-Covid-19-and-prisons-in-Europe.

What is EDJNet and how did it start? What are the challenges of doing cross-border journalism in a network that comprises 31 news outlets from 19 European countries? And why has data journalism become so important? We address these and other questions in a special episode opening our new podcast series, which is produced by OBC Transeuropa and hosted by Giovanni Vale.Episode 0 of Uncharted Europe includes contributions from: Lorenzo Ferrari, head of data team at OBC Transeuropa in Italy and editorial coordinator of EDJNet, Gian-Paolo Accardo, co-founder and executive editor at Voxeurop, Catherine André, deputy editor-in-chief at Alternatives Economiques in France, Adrian Mihaltianu, editorial director at PressOne in Romania, Teodora Ćurčić, investigative reporter at CINS in Serbia, and György Folk, co-founder at EUrologus in Hungary.